Jet Magazine Crafts Web Strategy

For months media analysts, journalists, and the black community have been speculating the fate of Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of seminal magazines, Ebony and Jet. It’s no secret that the company like many other publications have been teetering on the brink of collapse due to decline in ad pages and subscriptions as well as increasing pressure from the digital forum. Ebony’s revenues are down 18.8%, but Jet has taken the biggest hit with a whopping 40.9% loss.

As a result of the loss, Johnson Publishing is scrambling to keep the ship afloat by reorganizing, putting staffers on notice that they would have to reapply for their positions. In tandem with the reorganization, JPC has come to the realization that it can not survive on print alone and is in the fledgling phases of revamping their web strategy.  They’ve made some good moves, partnering with leading search engine Google to make all back issues of Ebony and Jet, starting with Jet’s November 1, 1951 debut, available to the public free of charge. While that’s a good look, the digital audience is concerned with the here and now. It’s important to engage the technorati in a language they understand, so it was crucial that Johnson Publishing find a person that could refocus the vision and lead the charge. Enter former managing editor Mira Lowe.

Mira Lowe was recently named Editor-in-Chief of Jet Magazine, overseeing the publication’s print and digital direction. She’s jumping in head first, embracing as seen by the new Facebook and Twitter icons EbonyJet.com’s homepage. The Facebook page is a regular fan page with status updates directing fans back to EbonyJet.com to check out their latest content. The Twitter, feed, however is a little different.  Lowe is taking a hands-on approach to bringing the publication to the digital masses, choosing to tweet as @JETMAGAZINE, informing her 61 followers that “JET magazine is taking it to the next level.”

Ebony and Jet are definitely stepping their digital game up, but it remains to be seen if adding a couple of icons to the homepage and occasionally posting updates will be enough to bolster the publishing company’s sagging sails. JPC, like most print publications is playing a serious game of catch up in the online forum, but catching up might not be enough. Print must be able to innovate in ways that allow them to create a real integration of their brand identity instead of creating one-offs that don’t get the same amount of resources essentially left to bleed out slowly. As we watch Ebony and Jet fight to stay alive amidst an ever-changing media world, we’re left asking if it’s possible for a dinosaur to evolve enough to survive the meteor.